Emissions is one of our favorite festivals here at Afro Monk. Check out what Tara had to say about last year’s event here! AND We love Emission so much, we’re also giving out TWO free tickets! Check HERE for more information on the contest!

Camp ? has graced the West Coast with so many amazing parties and events over the years, not to mention five legendary Emissions and some seriously epic Burning Man camps. I am super grateful for what they have contributed to the community and love to support them in any way. Their brainchild, Emissions, is a one of a kind festival that I look forward to every year. It’s relatively small in number, keeping it quite intimate; it’s casual, yet well organized; and it’s high energy, heavy hitting array of bass music is unmatchable. The family vibe is strong, seen and felt in abundant smiles, laughs, and hugs; the music is fresh and poppin all day; and the PK rig, BANGIN, to say the least.

It is being held for it’s second year at the lovely Belden Town, an adorable mini town nestled in the Feather River Canyon in Northern California. Belden is an excellent host for festivals with it’s shady camping and flowing river. The beach stage is an awesome space and I can’t wait be to kickin it there listening to bomb music in what’s sure to be gorgeous weather. Mmmm….perfection.

Emissions’ lineup this year has shaped up to be, in my opinion, their best ever. I love and admire Camp ?’s dedication to bass music. They’re not trying to be overly trendy or #toofuture4you, nor are they adhering to what seems to be the standardized festival lineup we have become oh too familiar with on the west coast. They’ve instead done what hardly anybody else has been able to really grasp thus far this summer and created, simply, a solid lineup of high quality producers and DJ’s that are killing it right now. Let’s look closer at some of those artists:

Doshy: Long before I became a writer for Afro Monk, I was an avid reader of the blog. JM (Afro Monk)’s posts introduced me to a ton of music in 2010-2011, but by far the best discovery I ever made from the blog was the introduction to bass music producer Doshy. Hailing from Germany, this is Doshy’s first ever U.S. appearance! This a huge deal to me, being a crazy fan of Doshy since JM’s article in 2011, and I was starting to think I would never catch him live in the U.S. I’m sure there’s a grip of other Doshy fans feeling the same way. Sure to be a highlight of the weekend.

Deltron 3030: A man who needs no introduction, Bay Area native, Deltron, is the perfect headliner for this event. The influence of hip hop on bass music is evident in the work of essentially everyone on this bill, so I think it’s definitely crucial to have such a prominent and incredible rapper headlining. His most recent album has a super fun, higher energy feel throughout so I’m sure his set will be super tight(of course I’m hoping he’ll play hella from Deltron 3030 though!)

NastyNasty: A bay area bass music scene legend and one of my favorite producers of all time, NastyNasty sets have been a consistently amazing part of my experience within the west coast electronic music scene for 4+ years now. A cultivator of science fiction influenced sound design and polyrythmic soulfuness, his unique take on bass music is always on that next level tip. His live sets are flawless and always a great time. Can’t wait for his set!

G Jones: Anyone who reads Afro Monk regularly is well versed in the work of G Jones. I consider him to be at the forefront of the West Coast bass music sound, killing it harder than pretty much anyone right now. I love his music and am always impressed with new releases. His performance is sure to be one of the best of the weekends and you can catch him a second time alongside Minnesota.

Starkey + Dev79: What can I even say about Starkey?? His signature Street Bass sound defines everything I love about future bass music and his live sets have been some of the hardest I’ve danced in my life. I’m super stoked to see him alongside Dev79, who I have yet to see live. Unmissable for sure!

DJ Pound: Another proprietor of the “street bass” sound, DJ Pound is sure to be a seriously epic set. I’m really stoked on this booking and to get to catch some of DJ Pound’s monstrous tunes played by the creator himself on a PK system. Associated with some of the most forward thinking and respectable labels in the game, Seclusiasis and Saturate , DJ Pound has been making moves this last year and his music speaks for itself.

Perkulat0r: I was just recently introduced to the sounds of Perkulat0r when he played a show in Seattle and I can assure you he’s not to be slept on. I would consider him to be one of the most exciting up and comers in the scene, rockin an already highly developed sound, reminiscent of the type of glitch hop I used to really love but don’t hear as much anymore. Don’t miss this one!

Quarry: Dark, dreary, beautiful Quarry. I frequently go through phases where I lean towards darker sounds and Quarry’s post-sad aesthetic fits in perfectly with my current obsession with that feel. I was stoked to see him on this lineup and can’t wait to get catch his set!

Some more artists I look forward to seeing are The Widdler, Bleep Bloop, Boats, Cestladore, J:Kenzo, Guttstar, Hypha, Smashletooth, The Pirate, Pressha, Intellitard, VNDMG, Yheti, Son of Kick, Bogl…realistically I could go on and on, as the talent is rich this year and the lineup is nothing short of stacked! And as usual, the Bay Area and Northern California are being represented in their fullest majestic form by everyone from the headliners to the local favorites. Big ups West Coast artists and everyone else coming through for the event. And huge ups to Camp ? on their epic choice in lineup.

This is sure to be one for the books! Tickets available now but selling fast! First and Second tier already sold out, so get on the third ASAP. You can buy tickets here and follow the Emissions Event Page for information and updates on the event. And as mentioned before, don’t forget we are doing a contest for two tickets! This festival is not too be missed and entering only takes a sec! ENTER HERE!

Emissions! I can’t contain myself with excitement for this all-around extraordinary festival. The vibes that you feel while at any Camp ? and/or Irie Cartel event are unparalleled. These guys are on the forefront of West Coast Bass Culture and they’re passionate about making it happen, and making it happen right! The crew welcomes any and all creative exploration, collaboration, participation, synchronization. So it’s no wonder that their gatherings are all-sensory interactive experiences.

My first Emissions was in 2011 in beautiful Tuolumne, CA… we came, we partied and howled at the moon, we got snowed out, and we conquered that shit. It was actually magnificent feeling the forces of nature make themselves known to us; it went from pleasantly sizzling hot to torrential blizzard in a matter of two days. But the point is, we came together under the snowfall and continued to have a blast! Not many groups of people can collectively do that. Then last year, Emissions was held in the sweeping valleys and timber-laden forest of Angels Camp. It was magical! There was a sense of pure bliss and beauty in the air that you couldn’t resist noticing and soaking in. This year, I can’t tell you how I’m excited that the gathering will be held in my all-time favorite venue of Belden Town, which is nestled in the stunning Feather River Canyon in the Sierra Nevadas. We’ll soon be shaking our booties in the sun, some floating in the refreshing water, some swaying in hammocks…. Perfection!

Let’s get to the music. DJ Shadow, at a festival?! Double yes. I can’t wait to see his All Basses Covered DJ Set; I feel that it will be completely different than when I last saw him in his awe-inspiring Shadowsphere. The Polish Ambassador always brightens my day with his retro sound that at times is reminiscent of old-school video game sounds. Lately he’s been exploring some lusher, earthy sounds that I love with Ecozoic. And there’s really no denying that he is the funkiest of diplomats with his bright onzies! We’ve got Ill.Gates, guaranteed to blow your mind with heavy bass frequencies. Minnesota will always be one of my favorites, I can never get enough of his textured tunes and his live performances are top-notch! I can’t wait to get weird in the paint with NastyNasty, his sets are always exciting and playful. G Jones has been killing it lately and I can’t wait to see what he brings to the table at Emissions. I am always brought to another dimension, one of elation, while experiencing Phutureprimitive live, so I am thrilled about his appearance on the bill. Other acts that I’m absolutely stoked on are M!NT (CO homie), Guttstar, Trevor Kelly (got the chance to kick it with him last weekend during Bicycle Day and had a great time and loved his sets), Bedrockk (also CO homies), Psymbionic, MiHKAL, Hypha, Zapper & Datgirl, Smasheltooth, Foobz (also had the pleasure of chilling with him last weekend), Zebuel (friend and pioneer of the Tahoe bass scene here), Boggan (awesome friend from Reno), and Benito.

So what are you waiting for, grab your ticket and come join us in the woods for Emissions! It is an insanely reasonable gathering and you will return home a new person. Time to feel the music. Get your Emissions tickets here! See you there

Oh Camp ?, words cannot describe the fun I have had getting down on your dusty dance floor. Whether it be on the playa, or at their festival, Emissions, or at all night parties in the bay, their shows and gatherings have been the backdrop of some of the best nights of my life. What always not only impresses me, but totally wins me over, is their tendency to book a ton of truly up and coming artists. And not just a few thrown at the bottom of the billing with a shitty time slot, but awesome quantities of them. Youngins’, innovators, the potential next big thing, Camp ? is paying attention and trying to get them on a sound system near you. I can not express how important this is to me. There are so many incredible producers getting zero bookings while the same mediocre DJ’s and producers play at every other show or festival. Yes, I understand that is where the money lies (In NAMES. People love them big names.) and although the electronic music scene often times promotes the facade of being some kind of ultra conscious, society defying movement, money is still the driving factor of many of these parties. But whatever, that notion just makes me appreciate communities like Camp ? and their party philosophy even more. With that being said, I love and support Camp ? in any way I personally can and here is a chance for you to do the same (and score some amazing tuneage while you’re at it!)

I introduce to you, The Campilation, an 18 track compilation released on the ever killing it, MalLabel music, to raise funds for Camp ?’s 2013 Burning Man camp. The compilation is home to tracks from a range of artists and styles, including some more established names such as Minnesota, Stylust Beats, Love and Light, and Sugarpill, as well as a collection of other very talented producers. I’ll admit my devout obsession to glitch hop has been dwindling over the last year so it was so refreshing to hear some great stuff from the genre, especially from two of my favorite, and in my opinion, highly underrated artists, Kll Smth and Mad Zach. The variation in style makes it hard to choose a favorite, but Guttstar, an amazing producer who if you aren’t familiar with, you should be, really brought it to the table with his atmospheric yet bangin track, “Where Do Dead Stars Go?”. I also may or may not have listened to G Jones’s “West Cliff” 4-5 times before changing to the next song. But we all already know how I feel about him ;)

Whether you’re planning on attending this year’s Burning Man or not, know that by buying this album you are supporting a truly great organization of bass loving humans. And if you are hoping to make it to the playa this year, know that your financial support will be going to one of the most poppin camps in all of Black Rock City. Regardless of the philanthropic aspect, this is a great release for all kinds of bass music lovers and I hope you all love it as much as I do.

I’m aware that this is much delayed, but this release is much in need of an AfroMonk writeup. Minnesota’s Altered States EP is unbelievably catchy, textured, & bassy. I can’t get enough of his synth lines, sample choices, and overall finesse with frequencies. To The Floor is now my go-to party jam. I can’t quite comprehend how Christian is so able to diversify his sound in the most successful and tasteful manner. Too often does such an endeavor go awry. Minnesota is always pushing the envelope and providing us with new ear candy constantly, but at the same time sticks to his roots and what he knows is good. Somehow his musical taste coincides perfectly with mine…. I don’t have to try to like his stuff, it just happens naturally. Sometimes I’ll play stuff and have to think about if I like it or not – nope, not with this guy’s work.

I love how humble the kid is, too. Oh ya know, like touring with Zion I is no big thing. And having phone conversations with Lorin. Normal everday stuff right? One Facebook status that comes to mind was something along the lines of, “Guys, chill out. Stop giving me shit about my DJ name… I’m from Minnesota and couldn’t think of anything else good at the moment, and I didn’t think I was gonna get this big” (to which ChrisB. responded, “Yeah me too man”). Haha.

I was one of the few that had the pleasure of seeing Minnesota at the EP release party, thrown by Camp ?. If you’ve been to Emissions before or their Burning Man camp, you know damn well that these guys aren’t messin around; they know how to throw a PARTY. This one was at the Old Spaghetti Factory warehouse in Oakland… It was intimate, cozy yet raging, and very conducive to having one hell of a time! Minnesota killed it of course. Just like he crushed it at Ego Trip at Burning Man, at Mezzanine in SF, everywhere the guy goes! So if you can, get to one of his shows on this tour (Sebastopol tonight), or just get to SnowGlobe, it’s gonna go offfff! Afro Monk and I will both be there raging!

This week’s Fire Friday Mix comes from the one and only Scott Nyce out of Dover, Delaware. Scott is a DJ legend of sorts around here and it has been a pleasure to get to know him and share the stage with him recently. He has a lot of passion for music and helping build the scene around here. Like myself (and prob just about every other DJ), he doesn’t seem to get much sleep, so you can catch him doing online ustream sets in the middle of the night at least once a week lately. This double-genre studio mix of dubstep and dnb goes hard and will surely help you kick your day in the face!

You can catch Scott Nyce live this summer along with myself, Drivepilot, Minnesota, Dirty Talk, Voodoo Farm, Bassdread, and HMAZZ at Dewey Beach Delaware’s first ever Electronic Dance Music Festival on Friday July 29, 2011. All of the details here: Dewey Beach EDM Fest. So stoked about this show! Can’t go wrong with a rave at the beach :p

Bio:

Scott Nyce was born in Newark, NJ and later moved to Delaware as a child. He has been a Drum and Bass DJ since 1997 and continues to be highly regarded as an institution in “The Delaware Underground.” As a small child, he was attracted to almost all things underground, obscure, and dark. Scott has been driven by a plethora of musical influences and discovered EDM shortly before turning 15. As he spent the next two years quietly jumping from party to party, trainspotting DJs and observing EDM culture, he became saturated in electronic music. At 16, he discovered the early sounds of Breakbeat Hardcore; the earliest form of Drum and Bass/Jungle. At 17, he decided to buy a pair of turntables, teach himself how to spin, and eventually throw his own parties locally. In about a year and half, Scott was being booked for shows in the Tri-State area and Canada. He has opened up and performed next to artists such as Ray Keith, DJ SS, Dieselboy, Storm(UK), and many others.
In the early part of 2000, Scott began producing everything from EDM to Ambient film scores. He continues to do so today. As a DJ, Scott has performed at events both big and small. He’s played everything from house parties to rental halls, beach parties and parking garages to major music and arts festivals. To date, he has branched out into other genres such as Dubstep, Glitch-Hop/Crunk, Electro, and Tribal House.

Emissions 2011

Camp Questions Mark & Irie Cartel present EMISSIONS! It’s not very often I post about events on the site but ohh man this ONE is truly worth covering. Emissions is on it’s 3rd year and wow this years line up is mind blowing. This festival is approximately two hours outside of San Francisco. There will be camping at the beautiful location for all three days.

Now lets get straight to the punch, MUSIC! The line up for this festival is one of the diverse line ups I have seen compared to all the major festivals. Diversity doesn’t mean that there’s only some medium grade level headliners mixed in with some local talent. This truly means that some of the biggest names in all spectrum’s of bass music. It is still taking me back how I will be playing at this event as well. This will be the first time I’ll be in San Francisco and couldn’t have asked to play a better event for my first visit. I think the best part of this festival as well is the unity that will take place at this event. There are so many names on the line up that I’ve worked with directly, have booked myself, communicated on regular online, and/or close friends with already. This past year at SXSW it was a dream to be part of the crew that we were rolling around with and I feel this will be no different. At the end of the day we all are here to share the music but what makes this community so special is how closely networked and friendly everyone is. There so many people on here that are playing that I haven’t met in person and looking forward to finally giving a good amount of people some big hugs. Can’t wait to kick it with all the homies out in Cali!

Now let’s list the two rounds of artist announced. I have bolded some of my recommendations for this. To be fair it’ll probably be quite bias to my personal taste and close friends of mine. Hey I was honest at least right?! Got to support the homies!

Please shoot me a message if you’ll be attending this event! I’m always interested in meeting new people. It’s such a blessing to be able to share the music to you all. I hope you all could make it! Be sure to grab your tickets now! Apparently there might be a limited amount of tickets. The price you’re paying for this line up is an insane deal! Not to mention there are still more artist to be announced! WHAT?! Yeah I know right…

We get a ton of quality submissions to the website and unfortunately we often don’t have time to give them all a proper a write up with our full time day jobs, DJing gigs, and other various projects. I wanted to take the time to share just a few of the tracks that have come through that I’ve been enjoying as of late. Make sure to check out their other sick tracks on soundcloud.com too!

Sick drumstep track from Hirshee! I haven’t heard a bad song from this producer yet:

New Remix from Eskmo:

New glitch-hop track from Cory O from the upcoming SpaceWork EP:

Every track that “A Girl and a Gun” is featured on is straight up fire!

New track from Profesher (Billy Blacklight):

Massive dubstep remix from Hot Mess:

If you’re into chill electronic music, def grab the new ep from Stumbleine featuring this beautiful track:

This new remix from Quartus Saul is a banger!

NastyNasty just released this face melter for free download:

This track from Shower Beer Graveyard is def a baby making remix, ha!

The Polish Ambassador has been bangin out sick glitch-hop remixes left and right!

Sick new track from Fractal Sky!

New one from Robokop!

The drop on this FEED ME remix is redonculous!

Funky new track from the one and only Jobot:

Grab this new free track from Goldrush featuring the vocal stylings of Anneka:

Love this downtempo/glitch “Radiohead” remix from The Polish Ambassador:

Minnesota is a dubstep/glitch producer out of Santa Cruz, California. I think that he understands something very important that a lot of other dubstep producers in the scene right now don’t. Yes, wobbles and heavy bass drops are fun and that’s why we love dubstep in the first place, but it’s important to keep the melody intact and have it be an actual song that people can vibe and/or dance to. Minnesota has some hot releases coming up that do just that.

His track “Space Mountain” is coming out on Gruntworthy on November 26th exclusively through Beatport which will also feature tracks from Stephen Jacobs, +verb, sugarpill, Dr. Knobz, Carly D, and Doug Surreal.

His track “Meow” will be released on Mal Label in early December on a compilation CD along with tracks by Mochipet, Blackheart, Skulltrane, Mycho Pan Cocoa, El Diablo, Helicopter Showdown and Getter. The compilation will be coming out exclusively on beatport.

And, you can pick up his EP which will be released in January through Tycho Records and will feature the fun glitch hop track, “One Love.”

In the mean time you can preview his tracks at soundcloud.com/minnesota, and while you’re at it grab this fun ODB remix he has up for free download.

Soundcloud.com has become my addiction as of late with their dashboard. Every time I log in, there’s fresh new tracks from producers I’m following in my inbox and I can see what they’re listening to, commenting on, and which tracks are their favorites too. I get wrapped up in this for hours every night, needing and wanting more and more. Here’s some solid ones I’ve come across this week. Enjoy and check back to Afromonk.com on the regular cause we find the good stuff!